Turnbull’s removal seems almost genteel

28 August 2018 — 12:00am

Over the last few days many political commentators, when describing the recent readjustment of prime ministers, would appear to be suffering from political amnesia.

Throughout the commentariat, with the ABC leading the way, there has been a common tendency to present the change of leadership as having been been what one called the most ‘‘destructive, bizarre, spiteful and debilitating’’ leadership change in our nation’s history’’.

What about the vicious and public character assassination of Kevin Rudd by his ALP colleagues when he was dumped in favour of Gillard?

Rudd admittedly was later given a wee polish and then his parliamentary colleagues, who had previously described him as being ‘‘a lunatic’’, ‘‘evil’’, ‘‘unstable’’ and impossible to work with, recycled him as prime minister.

Apparently a short time in the political wilderness cured his alleged lunacy and other spectacular character defects.

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The removal of Turnbull was relatively genteel compared to the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd no holds barred political civil war in the ALP.

How quickly they forget.

Dr Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills, Vic

Ministers hard to trust

Too many of those rewarded in the new Coalition ministerial line-up have very recently undermined their own reputations, their trustworthiness and damaged others in the process.

Many will find it hard to respect and trust particular ministers given the way they behaved and voted last week.

People will question the truthfulness of their pronouncements and their overall commitment to progressive and fair policy-making. We will be watching for evidence of undue influence of hard-line conservatism.

Sue Dyer, Downer

Doubtful sentiment

Was Jack Waterford (‘‘Abyss stares back at Libs’’, Forum, August 25) an officer cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the mid-1950s?

His ‘‘Australians ... want leaders who have a strong sense of where they are going, and why, and who regularly explain, confirm and reinforce to the public ... their confidence that events still fit within the roadmap’’ was straight out of the General Montgomery leadership playbook as taught at the RMAS in that period.

It was usually expressed as: ‘‘Always keep your chaps fully in the picture, no matter how bad the situation, and rest assured they’ll do anything you demand of them.’’

The sentiment expressed in the last seven words tended to be doubted by the more cynical.

Bill Deane, Chapman

Parliamentary revamp

It is idle to think that a silver bullet is available that might target the malaise in our body politic, but here is a modest proposal.

If our backbench parliamentarians were paid average weekly earnings (no extras because they favour incumbents and are unnecessary in this era of social media), there would be less incentive for careerists (who would have to take a haircut from well-paid legal practices and union positions) to come in merely to help themselves. It would not disadvantage those who genuinely wanted to serve the people but could not otherwise afford to do so.

Ministers should be paid the average of CEO salaries, their remuneration thereby dependent on the state of the economy. The Prime Minister could have a modest loading above that. Would it make a difference? I don’t know, but it could hardly produce a crop worse (with a few honourable exceptions) than the current mob.

Allen Mawer, Acton

Failed government

Scott Morrison’s elevation to the role of Prime Minister has left me severely depressed.

Turnbull lost me when he took emissions reduction out of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG).

I shed no tears over his demise. But in climate and energy terms, Morrison is unlikely to be any better. He took a (lacquered) lump of coal into Parliament and told us not to be afraid of it. He compared the Tesla battery in South Australis to the Big Banana despite all commentators declaring the battery a success in averting blackouts.

Morrison appears to endorse the ACCC recommendation to get rid of the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) that has underpinned the rooftop solar revolution.

Dutton may have been stronger on reducing immigration but as a hand-maiden of the far right, he was not a viable option. This government has failed and the sooner we are rid of it the better. I just hope Labor can deliver on a viable climate/energy policy.

Jenny Goldie, Cooma, NSW

Shorten the big winner

As the dust settles on the train wreck that the federal Liberal Party visited upon itself last week, surely a key question must be answered — what did the upheaval actually achieve?

The answer is very little. Apart from replacing a relatively popular Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with a much lesser known Scott Morrison, it laid bare the ideological and personal animosities that are rampant within the conservative side of politics. These tensions are sadly for the Liberals more than likely to persist as the hard right elements of the party will almost certainly continue their agitations. It also highlighted the extraordinary policy-making challenge confronting a Morrison-led Liberal government where his party could not even agree within its own ranks on something as vital as a coherent national energy policy.

All that has been achieved in reality is that the disastrous Liberal disunity played out last week all but guarantees that Bill Shorten is in the box seat to become prime minister after the next election.

Jonathan Hayes, Hughes

Dutton’s incompetence

The Peter Principle argues that ‘‘people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their level of incompetence’’.

One of the challengers to the Liberal leadership (whose Christian name is, appropriately, Peter) embodies the principle. Dutton was probably a competent policeman and maybe even an OK backbencher.

The danger signs emerged when he was promoted to shadow health minister by Tony Abbott.

He was unable to put any pressure on his Labor counterpart and when he joined the Abbott ministry was voted by doctors, in 2015, as the worst health minister in 35years. It was clear by then that Mr Dutton had risen to his level of incompetence.

Despite his failures, Malcolm rewarded this Peter with the super-ministry of Home Affairs.The fact that 40 members of the Liberal party room were prepared to vote for him as PM shows an abysmal lack of judgment and/or a tendency to value factional purity above ability.

Mike Reddy, Curtin

Seselja out of line

Regardless of one’s personal political beliefs, I think we all need to consider the way in which our political representatives actually represent us as citizens, or represent their own personal views at a cost to us as citizens.

See Seselja’s actions, among many others in the Senate when debating Senator Leyonhjelm’s bill to reinstate the rights of the ACT and NT to discuss euthanasia, removed many years ago by Kevin Andrews, have reminded me that senators appear to have forgotten that their role is to protect the interests of their state or territory, and not their personal view.

The Senate is a chamber of review, countering the political issues coming from the House, but Zed and others like Andrews have made it a place to champion hard-right religious viewpoints on issues such as same-sex marriage and euthanasia.

The debate was not about euthanasia per se, but the right of the ACT and the NT to debate the issue in the same way as the states can.

Seselja voted against the interests of ACT residents by arguing that people living there have no right to do so.

Seselja, and others, made it a vote on euthanasia, because they could, in a cynical exercise to further his own agenda.

That agenda was seen further in his support for Peter Dutton during this last week, where he proved that he cannot count. ACT residents of whatever political persuasion should consider giving Seselja the flick and electing someone who will defend the rights of the ACT in the Senate.

Given the safe nature of a Liberal Senate seat under current provisions, there must be at least one Liberal who would do that. Surely?

Charles Ironside, Moss Vale, NSW

Disregard for majority

By voting against the rights of Canberrans, such as same-sex marriage and legislative equality with Australian states, and now overthrowing a prime minister by backing Peter Dutton, Zed Seselja has shown an outstanding disregard for the majority views of people he claims to represent.

It is time Zed Seselja took stock of his professed principles and remembers he was elected to represent us, not himself.

Gina Pinkas, Aranda

Senator should go

With yet another Prime Minister elected after party in-fighting, the position of Senator Seselja should be untenable.

At one level, he has consistently failed to stand up for ACT constituents. For example, he did not oppose loss of thousands of public service jobs, which was based on misplaced ideology.

He failed to back the ACT and Northern Territory in the attempt to to be treated equally with all other jurisdictions.

On national issues, Senator Seselja has paraded his ultra-conservative profile such as opposition to marriage equality

But much worse, he joined the band of wreckers inside the Liberal Party who were determined to move the party to the far right, regardless of the consequences.

He does not understand or accept the values of contemporary Australian society.

By being part of this traitorous and deeply personal attack on his own party, he should remove himself from Parliament.

Keith Croker, Kambah

Rid us of this extremist

Senator Zed Seselja has blood-soaked hands. He was Peter Dutton’s henchman in the failed party room ‘‘putsch’’ against prime minister Turnbull.

He, along with Dutton, must resign from Parliament immediately. They have traumatised the nation and torn down another prime minister.

Seselja has ‘‘form’’, having politically assassinated the competent and moderate Liberal senator Gary Humphries in the past.

No doubt self-serving Seselja will not resign. Which raises the question: when will the decent moderate and liberal constituency in the ACT Liberal Party rise up and rid us of this extremist?

Or are there none left, in which case it will take the electorate, and a strong independent to do the job.

David Perkins, Reid

Three strikes

ACT senator Zed Seselja has shown over the last couple of weeks why he should be voted out of office by the ACT electorate at the earliest opportunity.

First he allowed his personal religious views to outweigh his duty as a representative of the ACT in voting against the proposal to restore full legislative autonomy to the ACT and the Northern Territory.

Secondly he abandoned his obligation to support due parliamentary and electoral process by playing an active role in the appalling and humiliating events which enveloped the Australian Parliament this last week. Again he put his own personal and ideological interests ahead of what he must have known were the views of his constituents — if indeed he bothered to ask.

Thirdly in respect of his part in Dutton’s debacle he got it spectacularly wrong.

Reactionary views

Zed might think he has won some sort of victory by just being a ‘‘deck chair on the Titanic’’ but he was never elected to impose his extreme reactionary religious views on Canberrans, which his pattern of voting has revealed.

Zed has proven himself in the last week or so to be an untrustworthy politician, being quite willing to oppose a sitting and elected PM.

After the next election hopefully he will no longer represent Canberra.

E. R. Moffat, Weston

Bishop a class act

Thanks Julie Bishop for being an amazing female trailblazer in politics.

The real question to be asked is why would any smart women enter the Liberal Party now when it is so ruthless in not allowing them to become Prime Minister?

Ms Bishop’s achievements, her long-standing career and popularity in the electorate was not enough for her to be chosen to lead it to victory?

Melina Smith, Brighton, Vic

TO THE POINT

APPROACH WITH CARE

Putting Abbott into the ministry is like putting a bull in a china shop. Think about it ScoMo.

Jon Jovanovic, Lenah Valley, Tas

POLITICAL PERILS

Et tu, Mathias.

T. Puckett, Ashgrove, Qld

GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER

I have never voted for the Liberal Party but I would like to say this: ‘‘Hey guys this is embarrassing. Get your act together.’’

Antony Barry, Ngunnawal

LESSER OF TWO EVILS

Morrison is the lesser of two evils.

Jeff Bradley, Isaacs

MIND YOUR BACK

Senator Seselja says he’s going to get behind the new PM. Best place for another backstabbing, hey Zed?

Michael Barry, Torrens

HATE TO SEE THE CHILDREN

It’s so good to see that the adults are in charge.

Peter Campbell, Cook

CLOWNS RULING

The only statesman gone. Send in the clowns. Happy now, Tony?

Anne Willenborg, Royalla, NSW

TIME TO CROSS THE DITCH

[After the events of last week] New Zealand looks good.

Brenda Hartley, Bruce

RED ALERT

The outgoing prime minister’s choice of a red tie for his farewell speech may not have been accidental.

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